Technology
Simplify Your Mobile Life with eSIM and Virtual Numbers
Managing phone numbers used to be a constant hassle. Between personal lines, work numbers, online registrations, and international travel, people often juggled multiple SIM cards, devices, or expensive roaming plans just to stay reachable. Today, eSIMs and virtual phone numbers offer a smarter way to handle communication. One device can manage multiple lines, switch between them instantly, and keep work and personal contacts separate—all without a physical SIM. For travelers, remote workers, and tech professionals, this setup offers efficiency, control, and flexibility that traditional SIM cards simply cannot match.
A virtual phone number is a digital line that exists independently of any physical SIM. Calls and messages are routed through the cloud, meaning the same number can function across multiple devices: smartphone, tablet, or computer. You can pick a local number in another country without actually being there, or maintain separate lines for freelance projects while keeping your personal number private. Virtual numbers also help protect privacy and streamline online activity. They are perfect for temporary projects, online sign-ups, or situations where you do not want to share your main number.
When paired with eSIM technology, virtual numbers become extremely convenient. Platforms like eSIM Plus let users download multiple numbers onto a single device, switch between them instantly, and manage personal and business lines without touching a physical SIM card. Travelers can maintain local numbers abroad, freelancers can manage multiple client contacts, and tech-savvy users gain complete control over their connectivity. eSIM Plus simplifies this process, allowing for seamless integration of digital numbers and minimizing the complications associated with traditional SIMs.
Businesses also find virtual numbers invaluable. They enable companies to create a local presence in multiple regions without the need for physical offices. Calls can be forwarded to employees anywhere, while integration with CRM tools allows monitoring and analytics of communication. For individuals, virtual numbers enhance privacy and simplify digital life. Whether signing up for online services, running a side business, or protecting personal information, virtual numbers provide flexibility and control that traditional numbers cannot offer.
Everyday Scenarios for Virtual Numbers
Virtual numbers are not just a tech gimmick—they solve real problems.
- International Travel: A traveler can maintain a local number in multiple countries, avoiding expensive roaming fees while staying reachable by family, friends, and colleagues.
- Remote Work and Freelancing: A consultant or freelancer can separate client communications from personal calls without carrying multiple phones. Multiple virtual lines can support different projects simultaneously.
- Privacy Protection: Individuals can use temporary numbers for online registrations, dating apps, or marketplace accounts, significantly reducing spam and unwanted contacts.
- Small Businesses and Startups: Companies can create local contact points in different regions, forward calls to employees, and integrate with communication software for better workflow management.
With eSIMs, managing these numbers becomes effortless. Instead of swapping physical SIM cards, users download the eSIM profile to their device, and virtual numbers become instantly available. This combination provides unparalleled flexibility for modern digital lifestyles.
How Virtual Numbers Work
Getting a virtual number is straightforward. Providers allow you to select a number online, link it to your smartphone or VoIP service, and manage it through an app. Common features include:
- Call forwarding to any device
- Text messaging and multimedia messaging
- Voicemail management
- Temporary numbers for short-term projects or verification purposes
When integrated with eSIM, the activation process is even faster. Download the eSIM profile to your device, and all your virtual numbers are ready to go. This approach is ideal for travelers, remote workers, and anyone managing multiple lines on a single phone without extra hardware.
Leading eSIM Providers
Several providers lead the market in combining eSIM technology with virtual numbers:
- eSIM Plus: Offers digital SIMs integrated with virtual numbers, allowing multiple lines on one device. Users can manage personal, business, and international numbers seamlessly, making it perfect for remote workers, travelers, and freelancers.
- Truphone: Provides global coverage with quick activation. Users can switch numbers without changing SIM cards, ideal for business professionals moving across regions.
- Airalo: Focused on international travelers, offering cost-effective eSIMs for data and voice in over 190 countries. Airalo simplifies connectivity for tourists and remote workers abroad.
- GigSky: Offers pay-as-you-go and subscription eSIM plans suitable for frequent travelers and digital nomads. GigSky supports multiple virtual lines on one device.
- Ubigi: Enterprise-focused, enabling companies to deploy eSIMs and virtual numbers to distributed teams. Employees maintain local numbers across regions without physical SIM swaps.
- Nomad: Travel-oriented eSIM provider supporting multiple virtual lines on one device. Ideal for digital nomads, remote professionals, and long-term travelers.
These services show how eSIMs and virtual numbers have evolved from niche tech to mainstream tools for managing modern communication efficiently.
Advantages Over Traditional Numbers
Virtual numbers have several key advantages over regular SIM-based numbers:
- Multiple lines on one device: Manage work, personal, and international numbers without carrying multiple phones.
- Privacy and control: Easily change or deactivate numbers for temporary projects, online registrations, or spam prevention.
- Global accessibility: Make and receive calls from anywhere without costly roaming charges.
- Integration with software: Works with VoIP apps, cloud platforms, and CRMs. Supports automated call routing, analytics, and communication tracking.
Traditional numbers cannot match this flexibility, efficiency, or convenience. Virtual numbers are built for modern workflows and digitally connected lifestyles.
Combining eSIM and Virtual Numbers
The combination of eSIMs with virtual numbers creates a flexible communication system. One device can handle multiple lines for home, work, or international use. Businesses can provide employees with local numbers in multiple regions without physical offices. Travelers can maintain home and foreign numbers without swapping SIM cards.
Consider a freelance consultant traveling across Europe: a virtual number in France, one in Germany, and a personal line—all on a single device. Clients reach local numbers, costs are minimized, and management happens from one interface. This setup highlights the efficiency eSIMs and virtual numbers provide.
Real-World Examples
- Remote Work Across Time Zones: An employee in Asia receives calls from North American clients using a local virtual number, avoiding international fees. eSIM profiles allow switching lines based on work hours.
- Maintaining Local Presence While Traveling: A business owner visiting multiple countries can maintain virtual local numbers. Clients call local numbers, but calls are forwarded seamlessly.
- Privacy and Online Security: Individuals use temporary virtual numbers for online registrations, reducing spam to their primary number.
These examples show why eSIMs combined with virtual numbers are essential for modern digital workflows.
The Future of Connectivity
With the rise of 5G, cloud communications, and AI-powered tools, eSIMs and virtual numbers will become increasingly integral to daily life. Expect tighter integration with business applications, enhanced security features, and instant switching between personal and professional lines.
For travelers, remote workers, and anyone managing multiple contacts, eSIMs paired with virtual numbers are more than a convenience—they’re a smarter, more efficient way to control communication in today’s digital world.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
An additional $200,000 will be invested in Artificial Intelligence (AI) media literacy initiatives across Sub-Saharan Africa, TikTok announced during its third annual Sub-Saharan Africa Safer Internet Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.
The platform hosted government officials, regulators, online safety partners and industry leaders for the event, reinforcing its commitment to collaborative approaches to online safety.
The funds will be provided in ad credits to help support local organisations in the region to expand AI media literacy.
This investment builds on the company’s initial $2 million AI Literacy Fund, launched in November 2025, which awarded 20 global non-profits to create content that boosts public understanding of AI.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, TikTok initially supported three organisations to advance digital literacy and combat misinformation.
“With the rapid advancement of AI, we are committed to educating our community online, so they feel empowered to have responsible experiences with AI, whether that’s as viewers or creators.
“We are partnering with trusted local organisations that communities already know and rely on, because their expertise and deep local connections are essential to making AI literacy programs truly impactful,” the Global Head of Partnerships, Elections and Market Integrity at TikTok, Mr Valiant Richey, stated.
Earlier, the Head of Government Relations and Public Policy for Sub-Saharan Africa at TikTok, Ms Tokunbo Ibrahim, said, “As we host the 3rd Annual Safer Internet Summit here in Kenya, our mission is clear: to share learnings, insights, tackle common challenges and collaboratively advance actionable solutions that protect citizens online.
“By bringing together a diverse coalition of policymakers, tech innovators, and creators, we are ensuring that the conversations we have at this Summit are all-inclusive and lead to a more resilient digital landscape.”
The summit featured expert panels and discussions on critical topics, including TikTok’s Trust and Safety efforts, protecting young people online, and policy frameworks for responsible AI governance.
A key highlight of the event was showcasing how TikTok uses AI to transform how people share their creativity and discover new passions, while ensuring the community remains safe through transparent and responsible AI practices.
The platform also shared more about how recent advancements in AI are helping the platform moderate content faster and more consistently at scale, by improving automated moderation and empowering human teams with better moderation tools.
With over 100 million pieces of content uploaded daily to TikTok, these advances, which work alongside human moderation teams, are helping get violative content down faster, reducing the likelihood of the community seeing it.
According to the latest Community Guidelines Enforcement Q3 2025, TikTok removed over 14 million videos across Sub-Saharan Africa, with 96.7 per cent detected and removed proactively using automated technology, underscoring TikTok’s commitment to proactive moderation and swift action.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The winners of the Technovation 4.0 Hackathon, themed The Wicked Hackathon, organised by Interswitch, have been given N10 million in cash prizes for their efforts.
At the one-day finale event, which took place on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, at the Interswitch Innovation Lab and Co-Working Space, the money was shared among the top teams whose innovative solutions stood out during the rigorous multiple phases of the competition.
Team Quickteller Fashion emerged as the overall winner, securing the grand prize of N4 million for a solution that impressed judges with its originality, practicality, and strong strategic relevance. Team Kampe claimed second position with N2.5 million, while Team Stable placed third, receiving N1.5 million. Up to N300,000 worth of cash prizes were also awarded to the fourth, fifth and sixth qualifying teams.
For nine months, cross-functional teams from across the organisation collaborated to conceptualise, validate, develop, and refine solutions, moving from raw ideas to minimum viable products (MVPs) with ready-to-market potential and deployment across the business.
The atmosphere at the grand finale reflected that of preparation and anticipation as the top 9 teams presented their innovations through live demonstrations and detailed pitches, fielding questions from a distinguished panel of judges before the top three winners were selected. Each presentation highlighted rigorous validation processes, thoughtful market considerations, and a strong emphasis on measurable impact.
While many of the solutions remain confidential due to their strategic relevance, the diversity and depth of ideas showcased during the hackathon’s final underscored the organisation’s growing culture of intrapreneurship and structured innovation. The projects illustrated how technology-driven thinking can unlock efficiencies, strengthen operational capabilities, and open new pathways for growth across the digital payments and commerce ecosystem.
“Technovation continues to reflect who we are as an organisation, bold, forward-thinking, and deeply committed to building impactful solutions from within. Over the years, we have seen ideas conceived during this programme evolve into meaningful capabilities that strengthen our ecosystem.
“The passion, discipline, and ingenuity demonstrated by our teams this year reinforce our belief in the power of African innovation to solve complex challenges and shape the future of technology on the continent,” the Chief Innovation Officer for Interswitch, Ms Adaobi Okerekeocha, stated.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The language support for its AI Search features has been expanded by Google, with the inclusion of Yoruba and Hausa in Nigeria.
This is part of a broader effort to make AI more inclusive across the continent, with support now extending to a total of 13 African languages.
Under the AI Overviews and AI Mode, speakers of both Nigerian languages can utilise AI-powered Search experiences in their mother tongue for quick summaries and conversational exploration.
This means existing AI features in Google Search are now accessible to people like the student in Kano asking a question in Hausa, and the trader in Ibadan seeking advice in Yorùbá.
By addressing language barriers, this update ensures that technology reflects the identity and culture of the people it serves. With this expansion, more people can now use AI Mode to ask complex questions in their preferred language, while exploring the web more deeply and naturally through text or voice.
The 13 languages now supported across Africa include Afrikaans, Akan, Amharic, Hausa, Kinyarwanda, Afaan Oromoo, Somali, Sesotho, Kiswahili, Setswana, Wolof, Yorùbá, and isiZulu.
These languages were chosen based on the vibrant search activity across the continent, ensuring that our AI experiences reach the communities that need them most.
Commenting on the development, the Communications and Public Affairs Manager for Google in West Africa, Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, said, “Building a truly global Search goes far beyond translation — it requires a nuanced understanding of local information.
“With the advanced multimodal and reasoning capabilities of our custom version of Gemini in Search, we’ve made huge strides in language understanding, so our most advanced AI search capabilities are locally relevant and useful in each new language we support.
“This is about ensuring Nigerians can converse with Search in their mother tongues, making information more helpful for everyone.”
To use AI Overviews and AI Mode in the local language, users must open the Google app on an Android or iOS device, or via the Web. They are required to tap on AI Mode within the Search experience. Thereafter, they can type or speak the question in their preferred language, such as Hausa or Yorùbá, and let the AI guide the journey.
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